Kris
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- Joined
- Jan 12, 2011
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Hi Everyone
I am quite new to DIY audio as well as to AVForums, but I must admit, once you have built your first set, you start making plans for the second set. But I as I am new to this I am a bit shy to post my work here, but here goes anyway....
Well I have started my first set - well it is not mine per se, but I decided that my dad loves music but he is listening to a .... I am not hundred percent on what I should call it but it is not something that you would write home too. Thus I decided he should get a new system, and who better to talk to about new systems but Jim Gore, or Ian (whichever one suits you best).
The bug started when I saw his new mini speaker set (a 3 litre internal volume speakers running on one of the Topping amps that Ian is importing). I was very impressed and even though I am not a fan of bookshelves I though that this was an ideal set up for my dad. So me and Ian started talking - and with his advice I went for bigger drivers and a bigger box (in the end I built it to be 15.3l internal volume)
The drivers I bought from him were:
2x Vifa BC14WG69-08
2x VifaDX25TG09-04
1x Topping TP21 (25w per channel) amplifier
The building comenced once I arrived in Cape Town. I decided to build the set from SupaWood with a veneer finish of either Maple (the idea for Maple came from a set of speaker Ian built a few years ago, which I loved), White Ash or Cape Fir. As far as I understand DIY audio (which is not much at the moment) I wanted a dead wood (if you can call it that). The veneer wood finish that I wanted had to be a very light wood, as I wanted the drivers (that I must say are quite beautiful) to stand out against the wood.
As far as building the set is concerned, I did not have trouble building the actual box, but the trouble started with the holes for the drivers as well as the port. I do not have a router, and thus had to rely on my jigsaw capabilities - which is okay, but show me a person who can cut perfect round circles with a jigsaw - well he is not me....
I did cut the holes for the drivers with the jigsaw, with some problems here and there. Then came the port. I wanted to place the port in front, as these would run in my parents house, and they would probably place them close to a wall - in order to avoid the bass becoming too boomy, I placed the port in front.
I cut the port with the jigsaw as well, thinking that the PVC pipe that would become the port would ensure a nice round finish. However in the end this proved to cause more problems than what they solved. The port in the end was about 1mm bigger than the outer circumference of the PVC pipe that I used and I ended up having to make a lot of plans to ensure that the finish would not be unsitely. In the end I epoxied the port into the hole, and sealed it with more glue on the inside of the case. (some photos will follow).
With that being done - sort off, the baffel was still about 2mm thicker than what it needed to be. I found when doing wood work, you make a half a mm mistake here and there, which in the end adds up to quite a few mistakes. Thus the sanding of the baffel started to ensure that the baffel has a flush finish.
All and all in the end I think the cases finish came out okay (I still need to do the veneering of the cases, so stay tuned to see what happens with that).
The cross over was next, and I am no electronics expert, but once again with the help off Ian this got sorted. I bought all the cross over components from him as well.
Ian sorted out the technical issues with the cross over, sent me the components, the crossover network, as well as worked out exactly what components are needed to ensure sound qaulity....
In the end he designed a second order cross over network:
Crossover Point @ 3832Hz,
Minimum Input Impedance: 4.19ohm @ 10594Hz,
Baffle Step Compensation: 2,0dB @ 1000Hz,
Maximum Input Power: 40W RMS
Nominal Sensitivity: 85.7dB/Watt @ 1.0m Distance
This is my first attempt, and still being attempted, of DIY audio. I will keep this post running for some time, or until I have finished building the set.
Next Post - the daunting task of building my first Crossover Network, and some photographs of the process
Thanks
Kris
I am quite new to DIY audio as well as to AVForums, but I must admit, once you have built your first set, you start making plans for the second set. But I as I am new to this I am a bit shy to post my work here, but here goes anyway....
Well I have started my first set - well it is not mine per se, but I decided that my dad loves music but he is listening to a .... I am not hundred percent on what I should call it but it is not something that you would write home too. Thus I decided he should get a new system, and who better to talk to about new systems but Jim Gore, or Ian (whichever one suits you best).
The bug started when I saw his new mini speaker set (a 3 litre internal volume speakers running on one of the Topping amps that Ian is importing). I was very impressed and even though I am not a fan of bookshelves I though that this was an ideal set up for my dad. So me and Ian started talking - and with his advice I went for bigger drivers and a bigger box (in the end I built it to be 15.3l internal volume)
The drivers I bought from him were:
2x Vifa BC14WG69-08
2x VifaDX25TG09-04
1x Topping TP21 (25w per channel) amplifier
The building comenced once I arrived in Cape Town. I decided to build the set from SupaWood with a veneer finish of either Maple (the idea for Maple came from a set of speaker Ian built a few years ago, which I loved), White Ash or Cape Fir. As far as I understand DIY audio (which is not much at the moment) I wanted a dead wood (if you can call it that). The veneer wood finish that I wanted had to be a very light wood, as I wanted the drivers (that I must say are quite beautiful) to stand out against the wood.
As far as building the set is concerned, I did not have trouble building the actual box, but the trouble started with the holes for the drivers as well as the port. I do not have a router, and thus had to rely on my jigsaw capabilities - which is okay, but show me a person who can cut perfect round circles with a jigsaw - well he is not me....
I did cut the holes for the drivers with the jigsaw, with some problems here and there. Then came the port. I wanted to place the port in front, as these would run in my parents house, and they would probably place them close to a wall - in order to avoid the bass becoming too boomy, I placed the port in front.
I cut the port with the jigsaw as well, thinking that the PVC pipe that would become the port would ensure a nice round finish. However in the end this proved to cause more problems than what they solved. The port in the end was about 1mm bigger than the outer circumference of the PVC pipe that I used and I ended up having to make a lot of plans to ensure that the finish would not be unsitely. In the end I epoxied the port into the hole, and sealed it with more glue on the inside of the case. (some photos will follow).
With that being done - sort off, the baffel was still about 2mm thicker than what it needed to be. I found when doing wood work, you make a half a mm mistake here and there, which in the end adds up to quite a few mistakes. Thus the sanding of the baffel started to ensure that the baffel has a flush finish.
All and all in the end I think the cases finish came out okay (I still need to do the veneering of the cases, so stay tuned to see what happens with that).
The cross over was next, and I am no electronics expert, but once again with the help off Ian this got sorted. I bought all the cross over components from him as well.
Ian sorted out the technical issues with the cross over, sent me the components, the crossover network, as well as worked out exactly what components are needed to ensure sound qaulity....
In the end he designed a second order cross over network:
Crossover Point @ 3832Hz,
Minimum Input Impedance: 4.19ohm @ 10594Hz,
Baffle Step Compensation: 2,0dB @ 1000Hz,
Maximum Input Power: 40W RMS
Nominal Sensitivity: 85.7dB/Watt @ 1.0m Distance
This is my first attempt, and still being attempted, of DIY audio. I will keep this post running for some time, or until I have finished building the set.
Next Post - the daunting task of building my first Crossover Network, and some photographs of the process
Thanks
Kris
